Tuscaloosa County Commission considers speed table rule

Friday

May 3, 2013 at 12:01 AM

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa County Commission could soon adopt a policy to regulate where speed tables can be placed.

By Lydia Seabol AvantStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa County Commission could soon adopt a policy to regulate where speed tables can be placed. There is no policy or process regulating speed tables in unincorporated areas of Tuscaloosa County.Currently, county commissioners propose placing the tables based on requests from their constituents. The requests then must be approved by the full commission. If the proposal is adopted, residents would be required to submit a petition with the signatures of at least 60 percent of the people who live along the affected road or affected area. Once a petition is submitted with a formal request for a speed table, the Tuscaloosa County Engineering Department would review the request, study the affected area and determine if a speed problem exists. In general, to be approved for a speed table, a road must be used by at least 100 vehicles but no more than 300 vehicles per day. The road also must be at least 1,000 feet long. The location of the speed table must be less than 200 feet from an intersection and the majority of the vehicles on the road must be exceeding the speed limit by more than 5 miles per hour, according to the proposed policy. If the area meets the requirements, County Engineer Bobby Hagler would then request that the Commission vote on the proposed speed table. “This will give the Commission an overall process and gives commissioners clear standards on when to put speed tables out,” said Commissioner Jerry Tingle, who proposed the policy. But not everyone was happy. “I don’t regret putting up a single speed table in my district,” said County Commissioner Bobby Miller, who represents Taylorville and the southern part of the county. “I wonder how many lives that have been saved.”Miller said that the decisions over speed tables should be left to the commissioners. “The speed tables are made to save lives and injuries, and this will absolutely devastate the speeding problems we have in District 3,” he said. “This handicaps us and this district and what we are trying to do to save lives.”The proposed policy includes a provision where a commissioner may still decide to propose a speed table, even if the engineering department finds that it’s unwarranted. But Miller still did not support the idea.According to the county engineering office, standard speed tables in Tuscaloosa County are 3 inches high and between 10.5 to 14 feet long, depending on the width and speed limit of the street. Studies have shown that the speed tables can lower speeds to around 5 miles per hour above the speed limit, according to the county.Having no policy could leave the county at risk as far as liability if there was a lawsuit over speed tables, said County Attorney Robert Spence. But Tuscaloosa County has also never been sued over the tables, he said. The proposal was tabled at the County Commission’s meeting on Wednesday but will likely be discussed at its May 15 meeting.